Trawlerman retired from racing

Champion stayer Trawlerman has been retired from racing after sustaining a tendon lesion during his preparation for next week’s Lonsdale Cup. 

The homebred son of Golden Horn produced a relentless display in the 2025 G1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, when he galloped his rivals into submission with a dominant victory that shaved almost two full seconds off the previous course record. 

Trawlerman returned to Ascot later the same year to capture the G1 British Champions Long Distance Cup, rounding off a superb unbeaten European campaign that also saw wins in the G3 Henry II Stakes and G2 Lonsdale Cup. 

His exploits saw him recognized as the world’s best stayer in 2025 with a rating of 121, in addition to receiving the Cartier Stayer accolade at the Cartier Racing Awards. 

During a career that spanned seven years in the care of John and Thady Gosden, Trawlerman won Europe’s premier staying handicap, the Ebor at York, in 2022, before graduating to G2 honours when denying Kyprios in the 2023 British Champions Long Distance Cup. 

Kyprios would gain his revenge in the following season’s Gold Cup, with Trawlerman finishing an admirable length second behind the outstanding stayer, and the Godolphin horse was third behind the same rival in the 2024 British Champions Long Distance Cup. 

Following his sensational 2025 campaign, Trawlerman was diagnosed with a rare eye condition that caused severe sensitivity to sunlight. 

Through careful management, he returned to defend his Gold Cup crown and was a valiant head second to Scandinavia in the staying highlight as the duo produced one of the all-time epic finishes at Royal Ascot. Trawlerman again finished second to his younger rival on his final racecourse appearance in last month’s G1 Goodwood Cup. 

He retires having won 11 of his 25 career starts, including five Group-race victories, and one of only four Ebor winners to capture the Gold Cup. Plans for his post-racing career will be announced in due course. 

John Gosden said: “Trawlerman is happy and well, but unfortunately he came out of the Goodwood Cup with a leg issue and is now being retired. 

“At eight years old, he has become part of the family here and won the Long Distance Cup twice and the Ascot Gold Cup in a very fast record time, which is unlikely to be equalled, as well as the Ebor. 

“He has won over £2 million in prize-money and remained at the top of his game this year when second in the Ascot Gold Cup, beaten a head giving 1lb to the winner. 

“He will be retired to Wood Ditton Stud, where Godolphin have wonderful facilities that he knows well having been there for holiday. 

"For all of us at Clarehaven Stables, just like Stradivarius, Trawlerman has become a much-loved member of the family and there are a lot of people here who will miss him particularly Ben de Paiva, who looks after him and Richard Wilkinson, who rode him through most of his career.”